-Despite today being the day before a long break, having a decent lesson prepared and being presented while having an unexpected visitor (along with the dean of instruction). The students sounded like they were learning!

-Beginning to appreciate a student I haven’t really liked that much

-A fun day with our kids involving a Turkey Bowl

-My team winning the championship of said Turkey Bowl

-Attempting to cheat to win said Turkey Bowl

-The school drumline during halftime

-Getting a turkey hat (and a trophy)

-A pleasant potluck w the students where they all got along and no one was annoying! They were just normal kids!

-Taking a nap on some random table in some random atrium in Midtown

-Seeing some of my favorite humans who are in town from Colorado (makes my heart soar)

-Two random men on the street complimenting me in a non-creepy way

-Random Japanese food that had good reviews but that was not very good but excellent company so it don’t matter

-Christmas spirit in the city (so many lights!)

-Thinking about actual Christmas break

-Realizing the guy at the Verizon store had been hitting on me on Saturday and thinking about texting him all day but then forgetting (there’s still tomorrow)

-Relating to the film Moana in weird ways and also wishing I was Polynesian

-Thinking about all the trips I want to and will go on in the future

-Friends from afar texting me

-Telling my guy Mo at the bodega next to school that I’ll miss him over the break and him returning the sentiment

-Candy

Things I haven’t liked:

-The pizza station at Costco being down for the day so no pizza even though I went through the effort of sneaking into Costco

Thursday, November 3, 2016

I know what you're all wondering: am I still only eating at McDonalds or has my palate become so sophisticated that I only dine at the finest New York restaurants. Also because I'm a teacher so OBVI I'm rolling in the dough and can afford it.

I don't want to crush your dreams. I ate nuggets last week.

It's official that I live here now and I think I'm finally hitting my stride. It's interesting because you think about moving to New York and then you end up here and you realize life is mostly the same. You go to bed early because you need to wake up before the sun so you can run to your bus stop so you can make a transfer to another bus so you can get to school on time to pick up the kids and steal one of the breakfasts they get and then try to figure out how to teach the 2016 election without providing your own personal commentary on everything that's happening because these little minds need to figure it out on their own. And then when you finally DO leave work, the sun is already setting and you're so tired that all you can manage is a BBQ chicken wrap from the Golden Deli around the corner from your apartment and you watch an episode of Arrested Development and scroll through Tinder before falling asleep by 10 (at the latest).

So glamorous.

And to be honest, there have been hard days. There have been days I've missed my bus and then my train and then I've forgotten I need to do laundry and my grocery bag has ripped open and I've cursed this city and all that it is. Because sometimes it's terrible.

Those are the times I go to bed and wake up and remember that every day can be great. Those are the days I remind myself that I've moved here on my own volition and I can do something today that I wouldn't be able to do anywhere else. Most of the time that includes talking to someone from such a different walk of life from me that I learn something I never knew before. Sometimes that means going to a Broadway show or a museum or eating Kool-aid flavored ice cream. These are all real things I've done and yes, the ice cream was super good. I would highly recommend it. I wouldn't recommend the churro ice cream cone, however. Basically living here has opened my eyes to the creativity of the ice cream world. But not the ice cream museum because those tickets sold out too fast for me and I'm still mad about it.

I've done some other things, too. Below is a smattering of Halloween, bro-visit (#fordstakenyc), and a kid who seemingly doesn't have any bones in his body.

I'm excited for the weekend because I'll probably see a movie and take naps and I can't wait I'M LIVING THE NYC DREAM.